an editorial by Kirby Lindsay, posted 30 June 2014
I admit it, I’ve encouraged people to move to Fremont. As a native Seattleite, I know this behavior is verboten, that I am supposed to discourage new arrivals, but I did it anyway.
I encourage, but not all take to this community. Some of their reasons surprise me, amuse me, and disturb me – but none manage to sway me from my profound pride and deep affection for the Center of the Universe.
Reasons – Con #1
I don’t like the Lenin statue. I know many of my Fremont brethren love the sculpture, and fear the day it might actually be purchased and relocated. At the 2013 Lenin Lighting & Fremont Festivus celebration, I spent 20 minutes listening to a woman agonize over the recent vandalism of the statue, and while I shared her horror (vandalism is bad, even to Lenin,) I admitted my hope he leaves – and then got to be berated for another 10.
Then, three months ago, as I tried to convince a friend’s boyfriend of the advantages of relocating to Seattle (she lives here,) he stopped me in horror when he heard about Lenin. He pronounced that he could never tolerate honoring a tyrannical dictator, or the Soviet Union, and would never go near such a terrible thing.
I gasped, but my friend nearly convulsed, as we both could see Lenin from our homes. So, I started to explain, about how the Lenin statue came to Fremont, about it being a prize for winning the Cold War and that ‘Art Trumps Politics’. I think I convinced him. I know I convinced me. I don’t like having the statue here, but I realized that I like living in a community that says ‘yes’ to hosting a temporary art exhibit, even when it isn’t warm or cuddly.
Reason – Con #2
For months this year I’ve ended up defending the Solstice Cyclists. It wasn’t really them, but the ‘idea’ of naked people in Fremont over Fair weekend. A new arrival to the ‘hood heard that the Fremont Fair was all about naked people, from friends of hers who spend their time in Renton, Lynnwood, Kent, Ballard and Issaquah – not here. I suspect her informants have never attended the Fremont Arts Council Solstice Parade, or the Fair.
To be honest, I didn’t defend riding naked, but I did try to get them all to see that it is half-an-hour of streaking before the Parade, and then it’s over. I must not have been very convincing though, as that new arrival skipped the festivities, and took her son to Ballard for the weekend.
Personally, I find the painted/naked riders a little annoying and, after 10 years, repetitive, but I do know, personally, many, many people who have found great joy and freedom in riding with the Cyclists. I’ve been here too long, and I remember when the City of Seattle threatened to pull the permit for the Parade if the organizers didn’t stop the ride. Today, with that threat removed, half an hour of (mostly) painted bicycle riders, I focus on my pride in the tolerance of this community, and their free-spirits, and those parents who want their children to know that creative expression can take a lot of forms.
Reason – Con #3
I don’t like how expensive Fremont has gotten – rents and goods – and that the influx of businesses, tenants, and landowners here come from a higher income bracket than I. I’d love to have thrift stores and low-income housing scattered more liberally among the posh boutiques (and the not-so-posh) and the outrageously grotesque townhomes (and the cute ones too.)
Yet I recently visited one of the many neighborhoods/towns around the world that 20 years ago seemed a kindred spirit to my home in Fremont. And it still had the seedy diners, used book stores and crafts markets of time-gone-by – but it also had much more crime, grime, dilapidated buildings, vacancies, and no place you could eat meat (or gluten) or buy an airplane/beach book.
Fremont has evolved from its hippie-town persona of the 1980s. I regret the loss of cheap but seedy, but having visited it, I can say I prefer the lively, cultural, creative mecca we’ve become. A place willing to try something new, and see where it takes us, rather than clinging to what worked before and fearing change in any form.
Reason – Pro
One day in May I had a chance to show-off Fremont to my (hopefully) future fiancé and his mom. I tried not to oversell the place – aiming for ‘quirky’ instead of ‘lovely’ – and Theo Chocolate, Café Turko and the Fremont Branch of the Seattle Public Library all lived up to my expectations – on our quick, easy walking tour.
However, along the way, street artist/public menace Benny The-Rock-Guy stood screaming at no one. I noticed a higher-than-normal amount of graffiti and litter. The Fremont Rocket desperately needs a touch-up, and I was also disappointed because the ‘People Waiting for the Interurban’ statue was in its ‘in-between’ stage, with the most recent decorations hanging from it in tatters.
I’m happy to say that while I may have noticed these problems, they didn’t. My potential mother-in-law left with only one concern – why Lenin?
Fremont is not perfect. I love this community, and I know I sometimes sound a bit Pollyanna about it, but I know it has ‘flaws’. I also know that every community has it’s ‘things’, and I like ours. We may be a little laid-back about cleaning up the trash, or discouraging an artist that sometimes has screaming fits, but we are a community with heart and creativity evident in nearly every enterprise we engage in.
I am proud of Fremont, and the tolerance of the people who live, play and work here. I don’t always agree with them, I’m sure they don’t always agree with me, and I will never love Lenin, but I love Fremont because it just doesn’t matter…
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©2014 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.